Georgia Racing Hall of Fame part of ESPN show segment

Dawsonville mayor Pro-Tem James Grogan couldn't be any happier with the national attention that his town is currently receiving due to its racing roots.

As part of an ongoing project with ESPN and columnist Ed Hinton, live segments of its show NASCAR Now are being filmed at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, which is part of the Dawsonville History Museum.

"It's good to show people that we have a lot going on in our county," Grogan said.

While the first segment was produced earlier this month, another live taping took place on Wednesday with Hinton as the host.

According to Grogan, there is the possibility for four more segments to bring visibility to the facility in Dawsonville, which traces racing's roots from the day of moonshiners in Dawson County.

Hinton, a former staff writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and now a resident of Jasper, was looking for a local spot to film segments for the ESPN show.

He's also friends with Dawsonville businessman Gordon Pirkle, who is a volunteer with the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame. One of this location's selling points was its size.

"Gordon told him that they could film 52 episodes at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame without seeing the same spot twice," Grogan said.

In the future, the Georgia Racing looks to expand with a working distillery to produce moonshine, along with a spot to spotlight some of the up-and-comers in the racing world, including Dawsonville's Chase Elliott, son of Bill Elliott.